By james art BATON ROUGE – Two boarded-up properties on North 22nd Street are causing some neighbors trouble.
Robert and Wanda Johnson live next door and spend a lot of time picking up trash that people drop on the ground or calling the city about incidents they experience.
“Drugs, prostitution, whatever,” Robert Johnson said.
The properties are between Sever Boulevard and Convention Street near the CATS bus station. For the past two years, the Johnsons say they’ve been cleaning up after others.
“It was a group home after they moved out two years ago, that’s what you see,” said Robert Johnson.
The properties are owned by the City of Baton Rouge. The city mows the front and street lawns monthly. Johnson says everyone who cuts doesn’t pick up the trash first, so it gets shredded into small pieces, making it harder to collect. But grass is the least of their problems. Someone kicked in the door of one of the buildings and moved items inside. Both buildings were compromised.
“You smell urine, feces, all kinds of things you smell,” said Robert Johnson.
The air conditioning units have been dismantled and a cordoned off area has been opened up to reveal an overgrown area filled with rubbish, clothes and other miscellaneous items. Overgrown trees and weeds now reach into Johnson’s property.
The Johnsons made several calls to the city and sent out work orders.
“They say they want to clean up the city, and if they want to clean up the city, why don’t they do something about these buildings?” Robert Johnson said.
The city owns a vacant house on Pocasset Street that was the focus of a 2 On Your Side report in May. The city has plans to board it up and sell it, but the process appears to be at a standstill. As of Wednesday, the property remained unsecured and not boarded up. There is still electricity to the property. Windows and front door are missing.
“Sell it, tear it down, whatever, because we don’t want rodents coming into our place,” said Robert Johnson.
The city says it will re-inspect the properties to make sure they are safe. The city hopes to sell or transfer the two on North 22nd Street to private owners as soon as possible.